What is Cohousing?

So just what is the cohousing model of intentional community? Some describe it as an attempt to recreate a traditional village in the midst of complex modern life in a sea of suburban isolation. In the US, the model has deep traditions in American culture including neighborliness, cooperation, and independence. In addition to a clear common denominator of people joining together intent on cooperation as a means of improving their lives, there are six main characteristics of a cohousing community based on McCamant and Durrett's work.

6 Characteristics

Participatory Process. Members organize and participate in the planning, design, and development process for the housing development, and are responsible as a group for all the final decisions, either with or without a separate developer. (In most mainstream housing, all this is usually done by a developer before a home buyer looks at a model or meets their future neighbors.)
Intentional Neighborhood Design. The physical design and architecture encourages a strong sense of community and increases the possibilities for spontaneous social contact. Much emphasis is placed on pedestrian village site design, open common space, and greenspace preservation. Typical (optimal?) community size is 18-32 households.
Private Homes Supplemented by Extensive Common Facilities. Each household has a complete private residence but has access to common areas and facilities which are integrally designed for daily use to supplement private living areas including a large common house with dining, laundry, child care, office space, etc. This allows for smaller, more affordable individual homes. Cohousing supports diverse definitions of households and families.
Complete Resident Management. Residents manage the development and community after move-in, making decisions of common concern at community meetings using inclusive, participatory decision making processes. Nearly all cohousing communities use a facilitated Consensus process supported by an empowered committee structure.
Non-Hierarchical Structure. While there are leadership roles, the responsibility for the decisions is shared by the community members and no one person dominates the decisions or the community process. Typically a community will have a shifting core of burning souls that provide key leadership at different phases. It's been proposed that there are 3 waves of burning souls: Visionaries, who launch the project; Doers, who tackle the myriad details of creation; and Sustainers, who pick up the reigns for the long haul.
Separate Income Sources. Households are responsible for their own income and finances and do not rely on the community for their primary income.

Sunward's Ponds Cohousing started in Denmark in the late 1960s when a group of dual income professional families were searching for better childcare and a way to share evening meal preparation. Many cohousing communities have been built in Europe and around the world since then.

Recommended resources on cohousing include:

Online Communities Directory
Intentional Communities website
The Cohousing Association of the United States
"Cohousing: Building Community One Neighborhood at a Time" Communities magazine, #106, (FIC, 2000)
"Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves" by McCamant and Durrett (Ten Speed Press, 1994)